Kip Moore Anxious to Top McGraw on the Basketball Court

The trash talk has begun. Tim McGraw is known for his music and the way he makes a basketball hoop sing before shows. Kip Moore had a basketball scholarship at Wallace State College in Alabama. The two men start touring together next Friday in Fresno, Calif. You can see where this is headed.

“If I start beating up on him he may not wanna play anymore so I’m trying to figure out how I gotta handle that situation,” Moore tells Taste of Country with a laugh. He says the two of them have actually been talking smack for a few weeks. If you thought playing with your headliner is like playing with the president -- give him a good game but let him win -- you're wrong!

“I can’t do that. I can’t let him win. That’s just not going to happen,” he says adding he might be out of a job by June. He does respect his new boss's game however. Last summer he told ToC McGraw would be his shooting guard on his country music dream team (Trace Adkins would play center).

Of course their main goal is giving fans an entertaining show. Moore likes the challenge of uniting 15,000 rowdy country lovers, although he also appreciates smaller, more personal spaces. Fans will get that this weekend (May 3) during his gig at the Listening Room in Nashville.

“It’s rare we get to strip it down and play acoustic and hear the stories behind the songs," Moore says. "You can’t do that when you play the festivals with McGraw and you got 45 minutes and you got a wild drunk crowd.”

Moore's set is part of a weekend worth of activities for Chase Marriott Rewards members. They'll be experiencing an authentic Nashville weekend with behind-the-scenes access to the Grand Ole Opry and an inside look at country music songwriting.

Find all of Moore's dates with McGraw at his official website. His current single is 'Dirt Road,' a song from his upcoming second studio album scheduled for later this year.